Mitchell County’s most famous mountain straddles the Tennessee border at an elevation of 6,200 feet above sea level. It was probably named for its roan color when seen from a distance when the rhododendron are in bloom. Legend, however has it, that it was named for...

This world-renown community in southern Mitchell County, is famous for it’s School of Handicrafts. At an elevation of 2,462 feet, it was named for Milton Penland, pioneer settler and businessman. The Penland School of Crafts was founded in 1910 by Miss Lucy...

Magnetic City and Wilder’s Forge were the original names of this community on Big Rock Creek in northern Mitchell County. The name Magnetic City comes from the story that when the survey lines were being conducted for the boundary of North Carolina and Tennessee, the...

This community on Snow Creek, was named for Professor Charles Hallet Wing who settled in the area in 1887. Professor Wing had taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and established in the community a lending library of some 15,000 books. This was the...